Campaign: Emerging from the strange tunnel that led from the deepest level of the dungeon, the Company of mercenaries and adventurers were surprised to find themselves on the edge of a desert, with nothing but mesas and open skies where they remembered forests and close mountains! The band of bank robbers and train hijackers were just as surprised to find a strangely clad group of soldiers in metal armor, and other oddly dressed, strange looking people with pointy ears, long beards or just half the size of regular folks! The initial showdown was what could be expected, with lead flying and magic missiles arcing, but these two groups now have a feud going… and there’s more weird stuff emerging from those caves!
Homebase (Hex 0) (0101): Buzzard’s Creek – This small town, perched on a cliff overlooking a small creek, is full of strange folks who don’t care what you (or your money) look like, as long as your gold coins are real, your weapons are left at the door and you don’t raise a ruckus! There is a regular influx of soldiers and gold prospectors hoping to strike it rich, as well as the occasional indigenous visitor and, more recently, strangely garbed travelers with odd accents and even more odd equipment! The priest at the local church isn’t very happy about the competition from the odd pagans who are praying at the water well, and the Sheriff definitely is unhappy about the shoot-out with crossbows and some strange electric bolts that left a few by-standers injured!
Three Hexes
(Hex scale is 24 miles)
Location 1 (0200): Taheton’s Band – A small village of Lakota Native Americans, led by the stern chief Taheton, has lived in these lands for three generations. Recent skirmishes with strangely dressed mercenaries have Taheton considering moving, although his warriors were victorious and his medicine-woman considering what to do with the strange magical wand that the strange shaman used to kill with. They also are unsure what to do with a insatiable creature that eats rusty metal, although the chief is considering what havoc it might cause the white soldiers at Fort Mitchell.
Location 2 (0000): Dry Stream Caves – These caves in the mountains by Dry Stream used to be the hideout for Buster’s Broncos, but when the Golden Sword & Shield mercenary company arrived, the bandits beat a hasty retreat. They’re sulking at a nearby camp, trying to figure out how to get back to the cave and get their stashed loot and firearms! They’re especially alarmed at the strange beasts and horrors emerging from some of the other cave entrances, which seem to be settling down and making these lands their new home.
Location 3 (0000): Fort Mitchell – A small, stockaded US Army fort and trading post, set up ten years ago to protect the (brief) gold rush and town nearby, today barely holding out with less than fifty soldiers and officers. The colonel of the fort has declared a high alert, unsure of what to make of the recent dust-up with a group of orcs that emerged from the caves to the north. The appearance of a group of visitors that seemed right out of a fairy tale has left the fort buzzing, and given rise to the rumor that these are long-lost Knights of Camelot!
Boot Hill is the old TSR Western RPG first published in 1975 and mentioned in the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide as one of the games that Player Characters could be crossed over to! Many D&D sessions certainly feel like the old spaghetti Westerns of the 1950s and 60s, leading up to the shoot-out (final boss battle). I hope you enjoy this little nod to a technique often used by DMs to inject some life and changes into their campaigns. Whether your players take the point-of-view of fantasy heroes or Western adventurers, the collision of the two genres has so much potential for fun mayhem!
“Three Hexes” are simple campaign starters to show that you don’t need to do a lot to have interesting settings for people to play in. Feel free to use these in your game, campaign or as ways to spur on your own creativity and imagination!
I’ve purposefully left a lot of detail out because these are supposed to spur on your imagination! The scale is what I would use in my own world, but if something else suits you better, then go for it. I may have the features moved about on the hexes for clarity, if they don’t suit you, move them!
This is Awesome! Super inspiring.